French GP 2018

JUNE 22, 2018

Practice 2 Report - Getting to know you

Lewis Hamilton, French GP 2018
© The Cahier Archive

By Dan Knutson

The drivers and teams continued to learn all about the Paul Ricard circuit during Free Practice 2 for the French Grand Prix. Getting the on-track data was vital.

“The simulator gives you a rough idea,” Romain Grosjean said about how much that helped for learning the track, “but it’s not initially super easy when it’s a new circuit because the correlation may not be at its best. It gives you an idea where it goes, but it’s not like Barcelona, for example, where we do the same lap time and get the same feeling.”

Lewis Hamilton certainly feeling comfortable in his Mercedes as he clocked the quickest lap time of the session.

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes – Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull TAG Heuer – Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Mercedes – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon; Williams Mercedes –Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin; Renault – Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz; Toro Rosso Honda – Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly; Haas Ferrari – Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; McLaren Renault – Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Sauber Ferrari – Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton topped FP1 with a time of 1:32.231 on the ultra soft Pirellis. The other compounds available were the soft and super soft.

Right at the end of FP1 Ericsson had crashed heavily and his Sauber had caught fire. So he would not be doing any track learning for the rest of Friday as the team needed to build up a new chassis.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 124 degrees Fahrenheit (51 degrees Centigrade).

Verstappen, Raikkonen and Vettel were fastest in the early going, but neither Mercedes appeared in the first 15 minutes. Vettel then went ahead with a 1:34.647.

The track was hotter compared to FP1 (when it measured 111 degrees Fahrenheit/44 degrees Centigrade) and as a result it was also slower.

Finally, 18 minutes into the session, the Mercedes drivers emerged. Bottas used the soft slicks to get down to a 1:34.156. Hamilton, on the super softs, beat that with a 1:33.915 followed by a 1:33.582.

Half an hour into FP3 some of the drivers began to do their qualifying simulations on the super soft. The order at the time was Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Vettel, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Gasly and Magnussen.

Ricciardo’s run netted him first place with a 1:33.243.

But then, just before the midpoint, the session was red flagged when Perez’s car lost its left rear wheel while he was doing a flying lap. After marshals removed the stricken car from the track, the session was restarted with 38 minutes remaining.

Bottas was about to go out when the team told him to get out of the car, which the mechanics then began to dismantle in order to check the cooling system. It turned out to be a water leak, so he was done for the session.

Meanwhile, Hamilton started a fast lap, and he clocked a 1:32.582. Verstappen’s lap put him third with a 1:33.271. Raikkonen, Vettel and Bottas rounded out the top six at this stage.

Grosjean soon displaced the defenseless Bottas in sixth.

Hamilton now commenced on his long runs, and other drivers were doing the same. Hartley’s long run ended when the team told him to pull over and stop at a safe place on the track. His engine did not sound healthy at all.

Force India had checked over Perez’s car and sent him back out for the final two minutes of FP2.

The top 10 at the end of the second free learning session were: Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Grosjean, Bottas, Alonso, Magnussen and Gasly.